The American Federation of the Arts (AFA) has launched a major touring exhibition titled "Abstract Expressionists: The Women," featuring nearly 50 works from the collection of Christian Levett. Currently on view at the Muscarelle Museum of Art in Virginia, the show highlights 32 artists who were pivotal to the movement but often overshadowed by their male peers. The exhibition includes masterpieces by celebrated figures like Helen Frankenthaler and Lee Krasner alongside rediscovered works by lesser-known painters such as Emiko Nakano and Yvonne Thomas.
This exhibition underscores a significant market and institutional shift toward correcting the gender imbalance in 20th-century art history. Collector Christian Levett, who recently opened the Femmes Artistes du Musée de Mougins (FAMM) in France, pivoted his collecting strategy after realizing that museum-quality works by female Abstract Expressionists were both historically undervalued and more accessible than those of their male counterparts. The tour represents a growing effort to bring these "criminally underappreciated" works to a wider public audience while solidifying their place in the art historical canon.